Posted by pancho from pool0179.cvx20-bradley.dialup.earthlink.net (209.179.250.179) on Sunday, September 08, 2002 at 3:34PM :
The Soviet Union had an agreement with Kennedy to have all US missles removed from Turkey. There were hundreds of them stationed there, pointing at Moscow and other targets. Remember that the United States had already demonstrated its ability and willingness to drop atom bombs on cities. The deadline for removing them passed...it passed some more.
Now the idea that Cuba was any kind of a threat to the United States was ridiculous then, and now. How come they haven't attacked us...how come they can't even get our military base off of their own island, their country? Our government didn't want to see socialism work...not anywhere...we might get to start asking questions.
So, Khruschov decides screw it...you can put hundreds of nuclear missles pointing at us...thousands of miles from your own country...in a client state of yours...we can do the same thing. So they began moving some of their own to THEIR client state...why not?
They never planned on attacking Florida...that's the biggest crock ever. It was just to force Kennedy to make good on his promise. There was no imminent need to bring us all to the brink of war...it was an American bluff...to get us all in a sweat...never mind then too the facts.
In the end the Soviets "backed down" and removed them...but not before McNamara agreed the missles in Turkey would be removed...and they were.
Big deal. The Cuban Missle Crises was a crises for American propaganda...just as now we're being convinced Iraq is coming to destroy the world. No one...no one has done more harm to the people of the United States than our own politicians and rogue CEOs.
-- pancho
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